Our day began with getting ready photos taken at the Delta Bow Valley hotel in downtown Calgary. The groom was wearing a stylish three-piece suit, and he and his groomsmen had boutineers made with fall themed arrangements of a white flower, autumn leaves, and red berries. Tatiana’s bridesmaids helped her into her gorgeous wedding dress. The bride looked spectacular and so elegant, along with her lovely arrangement of autumn coloured flowers in her wedding bouquet.

Their wedding ceremony itself occurred in the gardens surrounding the Calgary Zoo Conservatory. With family and friends surrounding them, they performed a touching wedding ceremony. The Calgary Zoo is a great location for weddings photos, and after the ceremony we were able to go to several locations around the Zoo. The bride and groom are both runners, so we captured a few photos of the two in action running through the lawns and open spaces. The Zoo also offered some nice locations with beautiful flower gardens, rockery landscapes, and forested areas. We visited the tiger cubs, who were incredibly fascinated with Tatiana and her beautiful white wedding dress. One of the tiger cubs in particular was following Tatiana all along the glass window and kept trying to paw at her dress.

During the wedding reception inside the Calgary Zoo ENMAX Conservatory, the venue served a wonderful multi-course meal and there were many speeches, toasts, and reception games, like the shoe game. The bride’s parents presented bread and salt to the couple in the Ukrainian wedding tradition. There was a breaking of the bread, and they said the tradition was that whomever gets the largest piece when the bread breaks “wears the pants in the family”. When they broke the bread, it was into two pieces of the same size! The great food was enjoyed by everyone and especially all of the homemade pies from their family. Rather than a cake cutting, there was a wedding pie cutting to end the meal.

We want to thank Tatiana and Aaron for allowing us to photograph their beautiful wedding and for having us be a part of their special day!

The games started off with a challenge to eat a little bit of everything that represents marriage – something sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy. Then it was on to a set of trivia questions about the bride, and their lives together. Richard answered everything flawlessly, and never needed to use any of his red envelopes. After several other tests, including searching the house for Wenlei’s shoe, and a serenade to the bride sung by the groom and his groomsmen, Richard was finally able to enter the bride’s room. It was a lot of fun to witness all of the door game challenges and to capture everything in the photos.

Next, Wenlei and Richard served tea to their family members during the first Chinese tea ceremony with the bride’s family and then at Richard’s parents’ home with his family. After the traditional Chinese ceremonies had taken place, the bride changed from her Chinese red dress into her white wedding dress, and we went around the city to a few locations for wedding photos.

We were able to take photographs inside the old mattress warehouse in the East Village, with its beautiful brick walls, and then onto Rundle Ruins for more wedding photographs and eventually to the new Peace Bridge, in all its brilliant red glory spanning the Bow River at Eau Claire Park Calgary.

The day continued with a wedding ceremony at the exquisite Q Haute Cuisine, a French restaurant in downtown Calgary, which has a great indoor wedding ceremony location with quite a lot of natural light and a warm fireplace to set the ambiance. The ceremony was followed by a fun reception, with many beautiful details and decorations, touching speeches, fun reception games, wedding cake cutting, first dance, and more dancing throughout the night.

Thank you to Wenlei & Richard for having us as a part of your special wedding day, and we wish you a beautiful life together.

It was a beautiful wedding and we wish Tess & Jeff all the best for happy lives together.

This family heirloom Bible was used to present the rings during the ceremony:

Each purse had a customized message written to the bridesmaid that carried it:

These bouquet charms contain the images of each of the couple’s grandparents:

The groom is waiting to see his bride for the first time:

A cute moment after the first sighting:

The bride’s mother happily looks on has the bride and her father walk down the aisle:

We love this series of beautiful candid images taken just after the ceremony concluded:

Canadian Maple Syrup bottles were the favors and placecards:

A beautiful sunset over Vancouver Harbour:

The Wedding Yacht on the Sunset Bay II, wedding cruise with Sunset Bay Yacht Charters & Event Planning:

The Boutonnieres | Hand-painted wedding sign on distressed wood

The bride’s Mother escorted by her two sons (the bride’s brothers):

The bride is about to walk down the aisle for the ceremony at Fish Creek Park:

Beautiful wedding details inside the Ranche Restaurant:

“The Perfect Match” wedding favors | Sparklers for the wedding exit

Their “Love Story” timeline on a chalkboard | Suitcase used as a box to receive cards

Guests wrote messages on these river rocks for the bride & groom:

Kerri and Darryl were surrounded by close friends and family, who helped celebrate this beautiful day. The weather was superb and we couldn’t have asked for anything else on this great day, we were so happy to be a part of their wedding. For photos, we went to a few different spots around Banff, including Surprise Corner and the gorgeous meadow on Tunnel Mountain, along with Lake Minnewanka and the Bankhead ruins.

A cute part of the ceremony was Kerri & Darryl’s  dog coming down the aisle as the ring bearer, delivering the rings when called.

Before the ceremony, the couple met around a corner from each other for a gift exchange. We took a photo of them holding hands around the corner but not seeing each other. It was a great moment! The groom went to the ceremony site, David anxiously waited as Yvonne arrived to the ceremony in a horse drawn carriage. Afterwards, the couple shared their first dance together on the beach. The entire wedding was fantastic, and we had a lovely time working with Yvonne and David. We wish them the very best of all that is to come.